The Tilly and the Buttons Stevie dress is one of several newer patterns to come from the brand. It’s a really lovely simple tunic dress with a back yoke and tie detail (or button and loop) at the back neck.The fabric suggestions are light-medium weight woven fabrics such as linen, double gauze, chambray, cotton lawn or viscose. It does then suggest that a silk or crepe de chine for a confident stitcher – I (as usual) had other ideas in mind.

I am a self-confessed #fabraholic, I just can’t help falling in love with beautiful fabrics… and then all I want to do is have the pleasure of turning them into something beautiful. This Fabric is absolutely stunning, the detail in this lace is just phenomenal and looks really sophisticated in the black. With an embroidered detail that creates a 3D feather effect and tiny sequins this lace has a real movement to it that makes it so different to a standard flat lace fabric. There are huge numbers of beautiful dresses that could be made with this fabric and I spent hours considering so many different options before deciding that I wanted to let the fabric do the talking.

Sometimes by choosing a simple silhouette it gives the fabric room to shine and this is what I was aiming to achieve by pairing this fabric with the Stevie tunic dress pattern. The aim was to create a lace overlay dress that could be worn over a simple plain dress (or crop-top and shorts for a more modern look) to enable multiple looks to be achieved by layering it over different colour or style under garments.

One warning for when you cut out this fabric… oh my goodness does it make a mess! The 3D feathers shed everywhere when cut along with the bits of sequin that are snipped through too. Now clearly its nothing a good sweep didn’t sort out but its always good to know these things in advance. It cuts out easily though, although its worth considering that repeated cutting through sequins will eventually lead to some scissor blunting so if you have the option of an older pair of dressmaking scissors I would suggest using them.

This fabric sews up really nicely. I had no problems getting through the sequins or handling the 3D element of it. The fabric doesn’t fray (most lace doesn’t) so there is no need for any finishing techniques on the seams, I simply trimmed the seam allowance down for a neater finish. It also means, no need for hems either!

One thing to note, un-picking on this fabric if something were to go wrong would not be an easy task, not impossible but definitely not easy.

The Stevie dress is a really simple dress to construct. With no darts or zip to insert it whips up in no time at all. I had reservations as to how the 3D element of the fabric would handle being sewn into the narrow ties but I had no problems at all and just trimmed off any of the feathers that overhung the finished edges once I’d turned it through.

I used this same trimming method along the neckline to get a cleaner line to the edge of the dress. The pattern calls for interfaced facings to be used to finish the neckline and back opening which when using a fabric that isn’t sheer or see-through is fine but for a lace dress you’re left with either using a narrow hem to finish these edges or as I did here, using the facings un-interfaced. I decided that in order to well secure the ties into the back opening this was going to be the neatest way to finish and I actually quite like the effect of the double layer around the top.

The final outcome of this dress is exactly what I wanted it to be and looks so beautiful. The fabric stands so proud in all its detailed glory. It has a sort of 20s flapper dress vibe to it which I love too but I think my favourite detail on this has to be the back neck tie. On such a simple silhouette its just a lovely detail that adds such lovely interest to the back of the dress.

Thanks for reading,

Clare

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